Does having a social agenda matter when you’re a landscape architect? At first, you may not think so. But when you truly understand the impact a compassionate designer can make on the spaces we inhabit, the answer is clear.

Sacha Coles is a Global Design Director at ASPECT Studios and founder of the design practice’s Sydney studio. As a global design influencer, Sacha leads projects of transformational change spanning placemaking, infrastructure, play space, academic, civic institutions, and green infrastructure. If you live in Sydney, his work has impacted your life. Most likely for the better.

His focus is on innovative design within a social framework, reinforcing the role that cities can play in creating economic and creative opportunities. Sacha is interested in uplifting quality of life, encouraging social equity and elevating the human spirit through design. He's been recognised as one of the top 30 Landscape Architects working globally and holds several advisory and board positions in the field.

Listen in as Vince and Sacha discuss how growing up with parents obsessed with wellness and the outdoors has shaped him, redesigning some of Sydney’s most iconic public places, and bringing cityscapes closer to nature.

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Being a change-maker in the humanitarian space is universally understood to be driven by the desire to help others. Equally, a love of travel and being motivated by difficult and hard to manage problems can be a huge benefit to working in the sector.

Thanks to parents who were avid travellers, and her childhood home in Massachusetts being filled with foreign exchange students, Jocelyn Wyatt grew up curious about the world. After completing a BA in Anthropology at Grinnell College and an MBA from Thunderbird School of Global Management, she was on her way to Washington DC where she got involved in global development work. Her dream career, travelling and doing good, was set.

Wyatt is CEO of Alight, a humanitarian organisation where she leads a team of over 3,500 members globally as they work alongside displaced people to co-create high-quality services and programs that address their needs. She’s also the former CEO of IDEO.org, the nonprofit design organisation she co-founded in 2011 after leading IDEO’s social innovation practice, where she spoke widely about how Human Centred Design is changing the social sector.

She’s also worked for humanitarian organisations in Kenya and India, is a program advisor to the Clinton Global Initiative, an advisory board member to Marketplace, a board member for Airbnb.org, Whitaker Peace and Development Initiative, and an Aspen Institute First Movers Fellow.

Listen in as Vince and Jocelyn discuss being on the ground at IDEO at the birth of Design Thinking, how spending time in cultures very different to her own have shaped her, and how the Human Centred Design Toolkit democratised design.

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We’re kicking off the new year by hearing from two internationally acclaimed experts in data-driven cross-sector insights and global market intelligence. We hope the takeaways from this conversation helps set you up for a dynamic 2025.

When you’ve been in business together for 25 years, and life partners for 30, parameters are important. Almost as important as knowing the right parameters to put into your AI tool to get a reliable result.

Martin Raymond and Chris Sanderson are expert at both. As the founders of The Future Laboratory, they help brands and businesses around the world succeed by spotting the deviancy happening in culture before anyone else does. They’re both innately curious about the world around them, and about people. Their foresight presentations are legendary for anyone interested in being at the bleeding edge of trends.

A journalist and creative director by trade, they founded the editorial platform for future trends in 2000. Just the two of them, and their dog. Fast forward to today, and they’ve collaborated with over 1,000 businesses in 50 countries worldwide, sharing foresight and ideas with over 20 sectors. Their desire to understand what makes people tick is what drives them.

Listen in as Vince, Martin and Chris discuss how the tropes we now laugh at were once signs of innovation and change, the questions every CEO has and what AI can, and can’t, do.

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